Guide to Ethical Consumerism

For some time now, it has been widely-understood that our current system of extracting resources, producing goods, and discarding waste is unsustainable.

But perhaps it required a widespread economic recession to realize that the problem is more fundamental. The underlying problem is that we allow ourselves to make decisions with an overwhelmingly short time horizon. We are placing too much attention on the present implications of our decisions while ignoring the implications in the future.

For example: a household accumulates excessive debt in order to finance their current desires, rather than save for the uncertain future; or a CEO maximizes short-term earnings in order to satisfy shareholders, at the expense of long-term investments. Often these decisions not only hurt the person that made the decision (eventually), but they also hurt society at large.

Our purchasing decisions are intimately tied to the time horizon problem described above. Consumption, by definition, refers to the purchases we make to satisfy a need or want that we have today, in contrast to "investment" which satisfies future needs. Consumption today costs money and thus reduces our ability to consume tomorrow.

But this isn't the only way that consumption transfers resources from the future to the present. Our current systems of production and consumption have many negative effects on society and the environment, and thus will reduce our capacity to innovate and produce in the future.

Ethical consumerism is a philosophy that argues we must overcome, or at least mitigate, these problems. It is a strategy to encourage our systems of production and consumption to be sustainable and to have low adverse impact on society and the environment.

In this series on ethical consumerism we take an in-depth look at one of the major decisions we make on a daily basis: what we buy. We will investigate:

1. What is ethical consumerism and what does it try to achieve?
2. How can I make smarter and more effective purchasing decisions by focusing first on what I really need?
3. What are the major criteria that people are using to make responsible purchasing decisions?
4. How can I empower myself to be a responsible buyer?
5. What resources are available to help me make ethical purchasing decisions?
6. What fundamental things should I remember if I will be buying based on ethical criteria?
    

What is ethical consumption?

Call it what you will: ethical shopping, responsible consumerism, sustainable consumption, green buying, or moral purchasing. In general, all of these terms are about one thing: broadening the criteria we use to decide what to buy and who to buy it from.

For example, a traditional consumer might choose a product based on price, quality, service and convenience. An ethical consumer might also consider the environmental impact of the product and the social responsibility of the manufacturer. And they would seriously consider whether they need the product or not in the first place. The types of criteria most commonly considered will be discussed in the third article of this series.

As a philosophy, ethical consumerism involves certain beliefs:

• Consumption is inherently beneficial to society, but because it is accompanied by negative side-effects, it must occur in moderation
• Buying decisions are about more than just the short-term impact on me; they should also be based on their impact to society and the world at-large, now and in the future
• Individual consumers share responsibility for the world's social and environmental problems
• The price of a good should include the full cost of its resources, adverse side effects, disposal costs, environmental impact, etc. (note: this often implies difficult value judgments about resources and nature)

As a strategy, ethical consumption is about:

• Minimizing the waste and negative by-products caused by our buying behaviour
• Ensuring the sustainability of our economic, ecological and social environment, and finding compromises and creative solutions that facilitate this
• Rewarding companies that behave responsibly, and thus encouraging a Darwinian "survival of the responsible"
• Encouraging investment and innovation designed to mitigate the negative effects of production and consumption

In the second post of this series, we will introduce an extensive list of quick and easy strategies that you can use to make better purchasing decisions.

In the meantime, what is your philosophy about consumption? Is it a critical component of our economic system or is it the root of all evil? Or simply a necessary evil? Will we be able to make compromises and find creative solutions to our problems of sustainability?

See also

The Sierra Club has an extensive essay on "Why Consumption Matters" available on their website. I highly recommend it for anyone that wants to understand the social and environmental impact of our purchasing behaviour: http://www.sierraclub.org/sustainable_consumption/tilford.asp